The question is inherently located in this blog's title. As the fearless Sith Lord of Pixlbit, ill go first.
Of the few ive participated in, the most fun I have had in a beta was participating in the Call Of Duty: World At War beta back in 2008(or was it 2007?). I remember the weekend I downloaded it my cousin Vic came down from the Bay Area and visited me; id recently gotten an apartment with my old lady, who was at the time pregnant with my boyo. Vic and I spent a full 17 hours in WaW's multiplayer, which to me was the last good WWII-themed multiplayer outing. I preferred the German Gewehr bolt-action rifle above all else, andvwas fairly effective with it. Far from godly though; ive always been more or less average in online multiplayer.
That was also the last CoD I played that didnt feature the K/D ratio. There were kills and deaths in the post game stats, sure...but people disnt seem to obsess over it as they do these days.
Running a close second was the DC Universe Online beta back in 2010 or 2011; again, im unable to recall the date. Although fun, I remember mostly having to download over 12 gigs of data for the beta alone. Horrible internet didnt help.
What was YOUR favorite beta? Sound off in the comments section, soldier.
I don't think I really have a favorite beta, but I loved playing DayZ when it was just a mod. The standalone release is out now in Alpha form, and I haven't played that yet, but I will soon.
I enjoyed World at War myself. Played it a lot before I totally burned out on COD.
I haven't actually been part of a beta. I do look forward to the Hyper Light Drifter beta that I should be part of whenever that happens.
I haven't done a beta yet because I always assume they are multiplayer betas and I'm not a fan of arena shooters no matter how good they look or how complex the "arena" is; however, I'm kicking myself for not getting on the Doom and Destiny betas (I had a code for Doom too). Those look like things I could get into.
Can't say that I have had a favoriate beta on the basis that I haven't had a GOOD beta to begin with. The first and only time I did sign up for one was with the new Xbox dashboard update called the XNE or something like that. My system bricked a few weeks later. Not saying that was the cause by the beta but I've been real leery of betas ever since> i didn't even participate in the Ace Combat Infinity Beta when I DLed it onto my PS3 for fear it too might break my Phat B/C model PS3.
I haven't played a 'beta' like what you're talking about, but I have had the opportunity to play games early for review. Some memorable ones include Pac-Man World, Tomodachi Life, etc.
I would have to say my favorite beta was a driving game on the PS2, and I have no idea what the name of the game. It was set in Hawaii and what was cool was that they sent me the disc, a paper with the instructions, and every week I would get e-mails telling me to log into the game to see if we could crash the game. I do miss physical demo discs, and beta discs.
I never knew that betas used to be disc-distributed
Ooh the game was Test Drive Unlimited. Yup I randomly got the game in the mail with the form letter telling me I got into the beta. I think it was because I was in Gamer Advisory Panel for the PS2, and that was one of the perks.